My Experience With A Jim Berry Organic In A Gts25t .

[discopotato03]

I got my car back today and I'm very pleased with the result .

To rehash I contacted JB a couple of weeks back and asked for a road clutch to handle ~ 260 Kw in a warmed over RB25DEBT . What I effectively got was an OEM Daikin 250 mm organic plate from a Z32 300ZX TT . Normally R33 RB25DET's have a 240 mm diameter clutch but Jim knows how to put together a pressure plate assembly that can use a 250 mm plate on the std (resurfaced) flywheel . This was a new combination he was cooking up but in testing he found that in this form the pressure plate wouldn't fully release the 300Z plate . I wanted to use that clutch plate because he said its sprung center and lining combination is better than any of the aftermarket 250mm Nissan plates . The answer was to remove the facings from the Daikin plate and reset the wave springs on the backs of the organic linings .

The drive experience is very nice and as long as you do the usual 1200 odd rev take off alls fine . My flywheel was lightened a bit and faced of course , it was balanced by itself and then with the pressure plate assembly bolted to it .

Jim sent me a new genuine gearbox front seal and I bought a rear main seal from John Robinson Nissan Spares in Rockdale (Syd) .

After a bit of research I thought I'd give the gearbox synthetic oil to swim in and chose Castrol Syntrans 75w85 , according to Castrol's blurb this can go wherever VMX 80 can so based on this and with the Kids seal of approval in it went .

From what Jim told me the clamp (drive) load rating of this clutch worked out to be 2600 lbs and equates to good enough for 277 Kw - no idea how that's worked out and no reason to doubt his word .

So a big thanks to Jim Berry for building this clutch , Milton at Harris Engine services for the machining and balancing , Bruce at Exceller Steering for fitting it , everyone here for sharing their experiences .

Cheers and thanks , Adrian .

[The Dan]

How much did it set you back for the clutch do you mind me asking?

[discopotato03]

Sorry I don't have the paperwork for it here . It's probably with the people who got the other clutch kit from Jim as both were sent to them and I retrieved mine last Sunday .

You're probably better off contacting him because a few things were done to mine for reasons of functionality rather than price , like resetting the wave springs in the clutch plate set it back a day and cost labour to correct which was fine with me . An aftermarket plate may have made it right but I wanted the better sprung hub and best linings going .

I gave him a bell late this afternoon to give the promised feedback . I tell ya there is a lot more in clutches than I ever imagined and I would find it distasteful fitting an off the shelf kit from a generic local mob - for my cars anyway .

I know to some people a clutch is a fancy clamp that lets them change gears and the cheaper it is the better they like it .

Like a lot of situations in life things are not always as they seem .

Enough of that , cheers A .

Well nearly , nearly forgot .

The part numbers for the genuine front gearbox and rear crankshaft oil seals for my car .

GB - 32114Y4000AU "OIL SEAL" .

RM - 12279-5L310 "SEAL OIL CR/SFT" .

Actually Jim said that the above rear main seal part number is to suit 98 RB25's , my car is supposed to be a 96 S2 and it has the late TPS stuff but not the 97+ Neo type CAS .

A .

[discopotato03]

Slight correction , the OE 300ZX TT clutch plate was Valeo branded not Daikin .

A .